Over the last week Ukrainian officials have been insisting that the long-promised counter-offensive is delayed until the West can pony up more tanks, ammunition, artillery and other weapons. But, there has been a noticeable uptick in Ukrainian attacks on Russian positions. These assaults apparently were carried out as a symbolic gesture to appease Western demands that Ukraine do something to the Russians.
You can tell that the Ukrainian attacks have been a bust by the very subdued reporting of the activity in the Western press. John Helmer of Dances With Bears provides a grim summary of the effort:
On May 12, in the first day of their scheme, 1,725 Ukrainian men were killed on the Donbass front. This is the worst day’s military casualty rate since the US coup in Kiev launched the war in February 2014.
According to the Financial Times, this killing didn’t happen. Instead, the headline reads: “Ukrainian counter-offensive takes shape with the first gains around Bakhmut.” The Washington Post announced likewise: “How Ukrainian forces denied Russia victory in Bakhmut by Victory Day”. The New York Times repeated: “Ukraine’s Advances Near Bakhmut Expose Rifts in Russian Forces”. According to this propaganda, these successes were bloodless on the Ukrainian side.
A NATO forces veteran observes: “An entire regiment has been destroyed. This is cynical trading in flesh.
In fact, what happened on the battlefield was dozens of Ukrainian troop movements in different directions along a front of more than ninety kilometres.
According to the NATO veteran, “this is more propaganda offensive than real offensive. They scraped together enough gear, ammunition and manpower to make a barely audible tactical bang. It’s a punch with nothing behind it. Those guys are already dead. This isn’t even wishful thinking. It’s cynical trading in flesh.”
Helmer’s report coincides with recent postings on Ukrainian Telegram channels of row after row of fresh graves in three Ukrainian cities — Khmelnytskyi, Cherkassy and Transcarpathia. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these video clips are worth a library of books.
At some point, Ukraine is going to run out of men to bury. Russia, if you have been paying attention, has been lashing military and logistic targets throughout Ukraine with an unrelenting barrage of missiles and bombs for the past ten days and shows no sign of easing off.
In tandem with Russia’s shellacking of the Ukrainian military, the ham-handed CIA allegedly put out a recruiting video worthy of Monty Python. Only one problem. The CIA apparently is dead-ass serious about trying to convince some sad Russians to abandon the clean subways of Moscow for the shit-covered streets of San Francisco. I can’t wait for a translation with English subtitles (it is possible that this is just a great piece of Russian disinformation; we’ll see):
This is the translation courtesy of XR Vision:
This is the …life I dreamed of.…. The path that I have chosen for
myself.….. Why is the life of some people more valuable than the lives of others? ….. And who decides? ….. To be a hero is to endure. ….. But to endure this …., after all, does not mean to endure in vain. …. The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping. …. Make sure he never finds out he’s in jail. …. Lies easily sway us. But we know what our reality is, the reality in which we live, and the reality that we talk about in a whisper. …. I don’t believe in revolution. …. True life takes place where imperceptible changes are made in the souls of people. …. Invisible to my country, but not to me. …. I will live the true life. ….This is my Russia, this will always be my Russia; I will stand, my family will stand, and We will live with dignity, thanks to my actions.
What foreigner with an ounce of brain power would want to put his or her life in the hands of morons who made this appeal to sign up with the CIA? I can tell you the answer — ZERO. So can Mark Baum (a character from the movie, The Big Short):
Got to give the Russian intelligence crew some props. They volleyed right back with a troll to beat all trolls. It is hysterical:
If you needed proof that the modern CIA is a clown show more prepared to do a drag queen strip show than provide solid analysis on Russian or Chinese intentions, just watch that “recruitment” video above. Unbelievable!
